Editing Hercule Poirot (section)

=== Private detective ===

<blockquote>I had called in at my friend Poirot's rooms to find him sadly overworked. So much had he become the rage that every rich woman who had mislaid a bracelet or lost a pet kitten rushed to secure the services of the great Hercule Poirot. {{sfn|Christie|2013b}}</blockquote>

During World War I, Poirot [[Belgian refugees in Britain during the First World War|left Belgium for England as a refugee]], although he returned a few times. On 16 July 1916 he again met his lifelong friend, Captain Arthur Hastings, and solved the first of his cases to be published, ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles''. It is clear that Hastings and Poirot are already friends when they meet in Chapter 2 of the novel, as Hastings tells Cynthia that he has not seen him for "some years". ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'' has Hastings reveal that they met on a shooting case where Hastings was a suspect.{{efn|name="KidnapPM"}}

Particulars such as the date of 1916 for the case and that Hastings had met Poirot in Belgium, are given in ''Curtain'', Chapter 1.  After that case, Poirot apparently came to the attention of the British secret service and undertook cases for the British government, including foiling the attempted abduction of the [[Prime Minister of Britain|Prime Minister]].{{efn|name="KidnapPM" |Recounted in the short story ''The Kidnapped Prime Minister''<ref>{{harvnb|Christie|2012}}</ref> }} Readers were told that the British authorities had learned of Poirot's keen investigative ability from certain members of [[Belgian Royal Family|Belgium's royal family]].

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After the war, Poirot became a private detective and began undertaking civilian cases. He moved into what became both his home and work address, Flat 203 at 56B Whitehaven Mansions. Hastings first visits the flat when he returns to England in June 1935 from Argentina in ''[[The A.B.C. Murders]]'', Chapter 1. The [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] series ''[[Agatha Christie's Poirot]]'' uses [[Florin Court]] in Charterhouse Square to represent Whitehaven Mansions, even though it is in the wrong part of London and was built in 1936, decades after Poirot fictionally moved in.

According to Hastings, it was chosen by Poirot "entirely on account of its strict geometrical appearance and proportion" and described as the "newest type of service flat". His first case in this period was "The Affair at the Victory Ball", which allowed Poirot to enter high society and begin his career as a private detective.

Between the world wars, Poirot travelled all over Europe and the Middle East investigating crimes and solving murders. Most of his cases occurred during this time, and he was at the height of his powers at this point in his life. In ''The Murder on the Links'', the Belgian pits his grey cells against a French murderer. In the Middle East, he solved the cases ''Death on the Nile'' and ''Murder in Mesopotamia'' with ease, and even survived ''An Appointment with Death''. As he passed through Eastern Europe on his return trip, he solved ''The Murder on the Orient Express''. He did not travel to Africa or Asia, probably to avoid seasickness.

<blockquote>It is this villainous sea that troubles me! The ''mal de mer'' – it is horrible suffering!<ref>Poirot, in {{harvnb|Christie|2012}}</ref></blockquote>

It was during this time he met the Countess Vera Rossakoff, a glamorous jewel thief. The history of the countess is, like Poirot's, steeped in mystery. She claims to have been a member of the Russian aristocracy before the Russian Revolution and suffered greatly as a result, but how much of that story is true is an open question. Even Poirot acknowledges that Rossakoff offered wildly varying accounts of her early life. Poirot later became smitten with the woman and allowed her to escape justice.<ref>Cassatis, John (1979). ''The Diaries of A. Christie''. London.</ref>

<blockquote>It is the misfortune of small, precise men always to hanker after large and flamboyant women. Poirot had never been able to rid himself of the fatal fascination that the countess held for him.<ref>"The Capture of Cerebus" (1947). The first sentence quoted is also a close paraphrase of something said to Poirot by Hastings in Chapter 18 of ''The Big Four''{{harvnb|Christie|2004b}}</ref></blockquote>

Although letting the countess escape was morally questionable, it was not uncommon. In ''The Nemean Lion'', Poirot sided with the criminal, Miss Amy Carnaby, allowing her to evade prosecution by blackmailing his client Sir Joseph Hoggins, who, Poirot discovered, had plans to commit murder. Poirot even sent Miss Carnaby two hundred pounds as a final payoff prior to the conclusion of her dog kidnapping campaign. In ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'', Poirot allowed the murderer to escape justice through suicide and then withheld the truth to spare the feelings of the murderer's relatives. 

In ''The Augean Stables'', he helped the government to cover up vast corruption. In ''Murder on the Orient Express'', Poirot allowed the murderers to go free after discovering that twelve different people participated in the murder, each one stabbing the victim in a darkened carriage, after drugging him into unconsciousness so that there was no way for anyone to definitively determine which of them actually delivered the killing blow. The victim had committed a disgusting crime which led to the deaths of at least five people, and there was no question of his guilt, but he had been acquitted in America in a miscarriage of justice. 

Considering it poetic justice that twelve jurors had acquitted him and twelve people had stabbed him, Poirot produced an alternative sequence of events to explain the death involving an unknown additional passenger on the train, with the medical examiner agreeing to doctor his own report to support this theory.

After his cases in the Middle East, Poirot returned to Britain. Apart from some of the so-called Labours of Hercules (see next section) he very rarely went abroad during his later career. He moved into Styles Court towards the end of his life.

While Poirot was usually paid handsomely by clients, he was also known to take on cases that piqued his curiosity, although they did not pay well.

Poirot shows a love of steam trains, which Christie contrasts with Hastings' love of autos: this is shown in ''[[Poirot's Early Cases|The Plymouth Express]]'', ''[[The Mystery of the Blue Train]]'', ''Murder on the Orient Express'', and ''The ABC Murders''. In the TV series, steam trains are seen in nearly all of the episodes.